German retail declines for five months

The sluggish domestic consumption – despite the generally good economic climate – continues to slow down the upturn of the German retail trade: German retail sales declined for the fifth months in February, by 0.2 percent, compared to January.

Price effects adjusted, the decline in German retail sales was even higher: a 1.1 percent drop occurred in retail sales, while analysts expected a 1.2 percent growth.

Compared to the previous year, turnover grew by 4 percent, in real terms by 1.7 percent. The biggest increase was in food trade, 5.4 percent.

According to the forecast of the HDE industry federation, turnover growth will be 1.5 percent this year – tozsdeforum.hu writes.